The first ever Formula 4 series to race in Africa has taken another step closer to reality with the announcement of a completed calendar.
On March 26-30 the inaugural season of the iM4 Cup is due to begin at Morocco’s new Oued Zem circuit, with second-generation Mygale F4 chassis powered by Renault engines forming the grid.
Last January, Mygale announced that “four rounds will be organised on the Moroccan national circuits from December 2024 to March 2025” using its first-generation car and Renault’s turbocharged 1.3-litre engines previously seen in French F4. It was to be licensed by Morocco’s national motorsport federation, and be organised by Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives.
Morocco’s lack of car racing circuits made the federation’s plan impossible, but ex-Formula 1 team AGS continued working on making a return to contemporary single-seaters.
It competed in F1 from 1986 to ’91, but was best known for failing to qualify for races. Only 48 of its 80 entries resulted in starts, and despite 13 top-10 finishes it only scored two points in an era when sixth place was required to earn a point.
In F1’s primary feeder series, the manufacturer scored 109 points and picked up 13 podiums across seven European Formula 2 seasons – with Richard Dallest winning the 1980 Pau and Zandvoort grands prix and Philippe Streiff victorious in the championship-ending 1984 Daily Mail Trophy – then over two International Formula 3000 campaigns took 15 points and one podium.
AGS was purchased by Willy Collignon in 2019, and from its headquarters at France’s Circuit du Var it has since focused on rebuilding historic single-seaters – particularly F1 cars – then preparing them and their drivers for racing.
It will centrally run the iM4 Cup, and the Moroccan federation will license it. Drivers as young as 14 can compete, fuelled by AGS director Collignon’s desire to see more drivers racing rather than testing in F4 at that age, and since it will not be an FIA-certified series it means any 14-year-olds on iM4 Cup’s 2025 grid would be eligible to earn FIA superlicence points elsewhere in 2026.
There will be 15 seats available for this year, and the latest version of the calendar has action kicking off with pre-season testing at Circuit du Var on March 4-8. A second pre-season test will run at Oued Zem on March 26/27, then pre-event testing the next day precedes the season-opening round.
Each round has the same format, with practice on Friday (following the pre-event testing that day), qualifying one and the first two races on Saturday, then qualifying two and race three on Sunday. Qualifying sets race one and three’s grids, with the top six finishers in race one reversed to form the front of race two’s grid. All competitive sessions last 30 minutes.
A three-day in-season test at Almeria in Spain immediately precedes round two there on April 11-13, round three is also in the country at Monteblanco (May 16-18), then the season concludes at France’s tricky Charade circuit (May 30-June 1).